Family Law is Like a Puzzle

My boy convinced me to buy him a puzzle today so after we came home from the store he started putting it together while I was putting everything we bought away. After I was done I went to help him, but he was doing it different from what I would do. He was not putting the outside together first and then putting the inside pieces in, instead he was just trying to do it all at once. So I sorted the pieces and started to help him put together the outside pieces, but it still was not working. I was actually convinced we did not have all of the pieces needed. We then went back to his method and just started matching up pieces when all of a sudden it clicked that we didn’t have some of the outside pieces in the right order. Moved them around and suddenly the puzzle worked.

The same is true with the Family Code. Two attorneys can read the family code differently. For example, does common law marriage apply to same-sex couples before same-sex couples could legally marry in Texas? That still remains to be seen, but the code does say that you have to refer to each other as husband and wife. Different attorneys will tell you that you have to read the code strictly and others will tell you that it is the intent of the statute.

Sometimes it takes reading multiple provisions of the code to see if your case fits within the code. Sometimes it takes creativity to argue to a Judge. It is that ability to sift through the code and apply it to your case. It is that puzzle-solving skill that you rely on your attorney to have to provide you with the best legal advice possible. Sometimes it takes stepping back and looking at the puzzle in a different way or looking to different parts of the code to find the solution.